Pickering v. Wagnon

86 S.E.2d 621, 91 Ga. App. 610, 1955 Ga. App. LEXIS 822
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 12, 1955
Docket35407
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 86 S.E.2d 621 (Pickering v. Wagnon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pickering v. Wagnon, 86 S.E.2d 621, 91 Ga. App. 610, 1955 Ga. App. LEXIS 822 (Ga. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinions

Quillian, J.

Special ground 1 of the amended motion contends that the plaintiff was not furnished with a full panel of qualified jurors from which to select a jury, because Nell Springfield was a policyholder in State Farm Mutual Automobile In[611]*611surance Company, a mutual insurance company that insured the defendant against injuries that he might inflict upon others by reason of the operation of his automobile.

The plaintiff shows in this ground that, before she began striking the jury, her counsel called to the court’s attention that any policyholder of said company or relative of policyholder, within the sixth degree, or employee, would be disqualified from considering said case, and requested that such persons should be removed from the panel, and that a full panel of qualified jurors be furnished the plaintiff from which to strike the jury. Thereafter, the court inquired of all jurors whether or not any were policyholders, employees, or related by blood or marriage to any policyholder of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Harold Springfield did not disqualify himself and was left on the panel. The plaintiff struck him from the panel and thereby exhausted her peremptory strikes.

An affidavit of Nell Springfield was made a part of the motion, and it showed the relationship of Harold Springfield to her at the time of the trial, and also that she was a policyholder in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. A copy of the policy was also made a part of the record.

It was also made to appear that the plaintiff and her attorney acted with due diligence, and that neither learned of said disqualification of Harold Springfield until after the verdict was returned.

The plaintiff contends that she was entitled to her peremptory strikes on qualified jurors, and was denied this right because she was forced to use one of these strikes in striking the name of a disqualified juror from the panel put upon her.

A policyholder in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is a stockholder, is entitled to a dividend on the net earnings of the company, and has the right to vote, which is pointed out in one of the provisions of the policy. Therefore, being a policyholder, she was in fact a stockholder, which would disqualify her or a relative of hers within the sixth degree, from serving on the jury in this case. Bibb Mfg. Co. v. Williams, 36 Ga. App. 605, 607 (137 S. E. 636).

It has been held by our appellate courts, in cases too numerous to cite, that a juror who is related to a stockholder is incompetent [612]*612to serve as a juror on the trial of an action against the company, unless the losing party has consented for the juror to serve on the jury. This is true though this relationship be unknown to the juror. McElhannon v. State, 99 Ga. 672 (1) (26 S. E. 501); Moore v. Farmers Mut. Ins. Assn., 107 Ga. 199 (33 S. E. 65).

The defendant cites in support of his position several cases which hold that it was not reversible error for the court to require the plaintiff to use one of his peremptory strikes in removing the juror from the panel. But those cases are distinguished from the case at bar, because in those cases the plaintiff did not exhaust his peremptory strikes and consequently was not harmed by being deprived of a strike. But in the present case the record shows that the plaintiff did exhaust her peremptory strikes.

Each party may demand a full panel of twenty-four competent jurors from which to strike a jury. Code § 59-704. From the panel of twenty-four jurors, each party is entitled to six peremptory strikes.

The plaintiff used one of her peremptory strikes in striking Springfield who was disqualified, thereby denying her one of her strikes, to which she was entitled, because Springfield should never have been on the panel. The plaintiff had the right to twenty-four impartial jurors from which to strike a jury. Mayor &c. of Columbus v. Goetchius, 7 Ga. 139; Howell v. Howell, 59 Ga. 145. In this case the plaintiff was denied that right, and the denial was harmful error. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Bunn, 2 Ga. App. 305 (58 S. E. 538). “A big part of the battle is the selection of the jury, and an impartial jury is the corner stone of the fairness of trial by a jury.” Melson v. Dickson, 63 Ga. 682, 686 (36 Am. R. 128); Atlanta Coach Co. v. Cobb, 178 Ga. 544, 548 (174 S. E. 131).

Special ground 2 complains of the following charge: “If you find from the evidence in this case, gentlemen, that both the defendant and the plaintiff’s deceased husband were guilty of negligence on the occasion inquired about by her, but if you find that the negligence of the defendant, if you find that he was negligent, was greater than or exceeded the negligence of the deceased, Mr. Pickering, then in that event the plaintiff might be entitled to recover, but the amount of recovery, if any, would be reduced in proportion as the negligence of her deceased husband, [613]*613if he was negligent, contributed to the injury and damage complained of in this petition.”

This charge was not error, though it would have been more appropriate to have charged in the language of Code § 105-603.

Special ground 3 assigns error on the following charge: “When the driver of an automobile is confronted with a sudden emergency, if he finds he is so confronted, is not liable because he might not exercise good judgment under the circumstances, but is held liable in such emergency for the exercise of ordinary care and diligence under the circumstances.” This ground is without merit, for the reason assigned. Whitfield v. Wheeler, 76 Ga. App. 857, 860 (47 S. E. 2d 658).

Special ground 5 asserts that the court erred in charging the following: “I charge you that in this case the defendant has alleged that if the death of G. C. Pickering did not result solely from negligence of G. C. Pickering, the same resulted from no negligence and was an unavoidable accident. If you should find under the evidence in this case that the defendant was in the exercise of ordinary care, or that the accident did not result from the failure of the defendant to exercise ordinary care, and that the deceased was in the exercise of ordinary care, then the casualty would be what the law describes as a mere casualty for which no one is to blame, and after considering all the testimony and the law as the court charges you, if you believe that the death of G. C. Pickering resulted from an accident, pure and simple, then the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover and you would return a verdict for the defendant.”

The first of the plaintiff’s insistences is that the court used the word “casualty” in two entirely different senses. In considering this charge as a whole, this was a mere slip of the tongue or inadvertence, and not a reversible error. Carter v. Buchanan, 9 Ga. 539; City of Atlanta v. Champe, 66 Ga. 659.

The second contention is that the charge was error, because there was no issue as to an unavoidable accident.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Harper v. Barge Air Conditioning, Inc.
722 S.E.2d 84 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2011)
Little Ocmulgee Electric Membership Corp. v. Lockhart
441 S.E.2d 796 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1994)
Lynch v. Broom
279 S.E.2d 302 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1981)
Hill v. Copeland
250 S.E.2d 822 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1978)
Byrom v. Felker
224 S.E.2d 72 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1976)
Gordon v. Gordon
211 S.E.2d 374 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1974)
Bennett v. Haley
208 S.E.2d 302 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1974)
Gurin v. Harris
200 S.E.2d 368 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1973)
Smith v. Poteet
195 S.E.2d 213 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1972)
Teppenpaw v. Blaylock
191 S.E.2d 466 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1972)
Jones v. Cloud
168 S.E.2d 598 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1969)
Hieber v. Watt
165 S.E.2d 899 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1969)
Palmer v. Stevens
154 S.E.2d 803 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1967)
Boatright v. Sosebee
132 S.E.2d 155 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1963)
Leggett v. Brewton
122 S.E.2d 469 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1961)
Glover v. Maddox
111 S.E.2d 164 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1959)
Everett v. Clegg
97 S.E.2d 689 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1957)
Pickering v. Wagnon
86 S.E.2d 621 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 S.E.2d 621, 91 Ga. App. 610, 1955 Ga. App. LEXIS 822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pickering-v-wagnon-gactapp-1955.